The Cornell Heart Lung Blood Resource for Optogenetic Mouse Signaling (CHROMusTM) will develop fifty transgenic mouse lines designed for combinatorial crosses enabling the co-expression of sensors and effectors, or red and green Ca2+ sensors in interacting lineages. As such, the resource will enable researchers to conduct experiments not otherwise possible in a cost effective and highly efficient manner, facilitating the use of optical genetic tools and markedly accelerating scientific discovery. Additional lines of mice previously developed in the Kotlikoff laboratory that are useful in labeling cell lineages or are GECIs, will also be included under CHROMusTM

CHROMusTM is directed by Dr. Michael Kotlikoff, Cornell University. A Steering Committee consisting of eleven additional world renowned scientists expert in the fields of cardiac, vascular, lung and immuno biology as well as in fluorescent protein design, optogenetics and gene targeting will meet bi-annually to prioritize and review mouse lines.

Once created, mouse lines will be distributed by the resource initially and deposited with The Jackson Laboratory for further distribution.

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September 24, 2016: NEW LINES AVAILABLE! New lines expressed in cardiac, venous, endothelial and smooth muscle systems are now available. Rhodopsin based effectors expressed under control of acta2, HCN4 and αMHC promoters, as well as new GCaMP8 lines expressed under control of αMHC and cdh5 promoters are our latest additions. Visit our mouse production page for more information on these and other upcoming lines.

October 16, 2015: New lines available! We have two new lines ready for distribution. acta2-RCaMP1.07 expresses a red calcium indicator in smooth muscle cells. HCN4-GCaMP8 expresses a green calcium indicator in the SA node and AV node. Additionally, other mice previously created in the Kotlikoff laboratory have been added to CHROMus and can be obtained through Jackson Labs. Visit our mouse production page for more information on these and other upcoming lines.

January 8, 2015: A new year and great progress is being made. We have founders from 6 transgenic constructs and are now analyzing their expression patterns. We’ve added a lacZ tag to the rhodopsin based constructs to allow for easy detection.